Will Jay’s new $53 million dollar venture TIDAL, benefit fans and all musicians, or just a few millionaire artists? When I watched the launch press conference with Jay flanked by his wife and other millionaire musicians and heard Alicia Keys quote Nietzsche: “without music…life would be a mistake,” I was like YES!!! Finally I and other makers of music will be paid a fair price for streaming our music instead of the current spotify payment of a fraction of a penny, while spotify, which does not write any songs or create any music, has a net worth of $308 million. But my enthusiasm waned after visiting TIDAL’s website.
Only “A list” artists, like the ones at the press conference, can upload their music directly to TIDAL. Under the FAQ section of TIDAL’s site, it states: “HOW CAN I PUBLISH MY MUSIC IN TIDAL? For unsigned artists, the easiest way is to register at one of these services.
- Record Union
- AWALL
- Ditto Music
- IIP-DDS.”
All 4 of these services are aggregators (middle men) who charge indie artists fees to upload their music on itunes, Amazon, spotify, and now TIDAL and pay the artist pennies for streaming. The whole point of TIDAL is that TIDAL charges the fans, then pays artists directly a larger, fairer share. The key to TIDAL’s success lies in exclusivity. If fans want to stream new music & videos made by Jay & his millionaire buddies, they can only get it legally on TIDAL. Plus, Jay, Taylor Swift and others removed some or all of their older music from spotify and placed it on TIDAL. If I can’t upload my music directly with TIDAL like “the beautiful people,” then it is illusory for Jay to say “if you don’t have a contract as an independent artist…then we would love to work with you.”
Bottom line: Fans are upset, lighting up twitter with #TIDALforNOONE. They do not want to pay more money. @lisanewton90 “I always love it when millionaires tell me how to spend my money…on them. #TIDALforNOONE” @lilyallen tweeted: “I don’t think jay z knows how much stuff costs. Like if I asked him for money to buy a banana, he would give me $40.” However, I have not seen one comment about how spotify only pays struggling indie artists (99% of all the music on spotify) a fraction of a penny.
That is why I am asking you to please donate something to our charitable campaign, even $5 so that we can finish the new song “Free Mama Earth,” which is the anthem for all who care about saving the environment for our children and future generations. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/free-mama-earth/x/10024608
Thanks and One Love,
Aria